I wondered if anybody has experience of can advise on the following: My sister and I started building a property portfolio around 15 years ago. Two of the properties have mortgages in our joint names, the others are solely in one name. We have always recognised the properties as shared and have declared a split […]

Roll back the clock to pre credit crunch time and developers were generally financed through their banks. Due to a dearth of readily available finance from this traditional source, a number of new entrants entered the market. With the number and variety of existing and new lenders, development finance has become a far more complex […]

I am in the process of buying a 3 bed house where the tenant has been in 4.5 years and wants to stay. She is 37, 2 children (one boy one girl in local primary school), one dog, divorced, from the area and wanting to stay near family, and until recently has worked in a […]

This development is set to provide state-of-the-art living for the Leeds rental market, providing a stunning array of apartments ranging from bespoke 1-beds to stunning penthouse apartments. X1 Aire is set to take boutique city centre living to the next level, providing state-of-the-art apartments to the private rental market. In keeping with the rising standards […]

As most portfolio landlords have realised, if the Summer Budget tax reforms go ahead, they will arguably be the most devastating blow ever dealt to landlords, especially those with a high gearing strategy who own properties as individuals.  There may well be opportunities to restructure into a company without transferring assets or triggering CGT and SDLT. […]

Castle Trust have launched a new Equity Finance product which allows landlords to restructure their finances for better cashflow. Could this be another angle to offset the strains created by the summer 2015 budget?  I think it might be, this is how I think it could work; You pay down your existing 75% LTV mortgage to […]

Does anybody know of a reliable software for property inventories that runs on windows rather than just android or i-phone etc. I ideally also want to be able to customise the templates with my logo and colours etc. Appreciate any advise given. Thanks Joy

The Government has recently passed new minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) which come into force on 1st April 2016. These will affect both landlords of both domestic and commercial privately rented property. The regulations have been introduced as part of the Government’s strategy to meet climate change targets and they will affect both domestic and […]

Women may be paying more rent than men, according to new research. Women who are living in shared rental accommodation are £2,271 worse off than men, according to research by SpareRoom.co.uk. Despite women in London earning 14% less than men, they end up paying £48 more in rent per year. The pay gap between men […]

Into its fourth week, Channel 5’s ‘Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords’ is growing in popularity with viewing figures of last week’s episode hitting 1.5 million. This week, a serial bad tenant and a subletting scammer will highlight the need for landlords to take action at the first sign of things going wrong. Landlords Terry Sartin and […]

I bought a flat in Glasgow in 2005 valued at over £200,000, I bought off plan for £154,350. after cash back and fees added the mortgage is £172,998. The estimated value of the flat is £50,000. The mortgage company TMB has been taken over and the mortgage offer expires on 26/8/15, they do not provide […]

Is this true now? The 15% rate doesn’t apply to property bought by trustees of a settlement or bought by a company to be used for: a property rental business property developers and trader Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-stamp-duty-land-tax/stamp-duty-land-tax-rates Many thanks Ian

If I have an existing rental business and I purchased a property off plan to add to my portfolio, with exchange in year 1 and completion in year 4. Can I claim interest on a loan to fund the deposit paid in year 1? If so, do I claim in year 1 (after exchange) or […]

The following snapshot of our projections should be read in line with our business plan and detailed projections (available on request) together with the crowd funding pitch linked below.  We are raising funds to launch a national TV advertising campaign of our property portal by selling 10% of the shares in Property118 Portal Ltd via the Seedrs […]

I have just been made an offer from my current tenant to buy the house he is renting from me. Ok, I do not wish to go through the agent who is managing the letting but have noticed in the contract that I have to pay them 1.5% + vat if I sell to a […]

Dear Mr Freeman  I have been a Conservative voter for my whole life and have used the influence of my property forum and blogs (200,000 subscribers) to encourage my peers to vote the same way. I would very much like to meet with you to discuss my concerns regarding the budget, in particular the impact on […]

If a tenant told lies when they applied for a property, and these lies contributed to the landlord’s decision to offer them the tenancy, then the tenancy was obtained by fraud. If the tenancy was obtained by fraud, then I believe that the contract (tenancy) becomes voidable (it is a “voidable contract”, i.e. it is […]

I think most people are aware of the games Solicitors play to increase income; the most popular one being you send me a letter and I will reply to it, then you reply to my reply keeping the fees rolling upwards, better still if our clients are on Legal Aid no one squeals on us […]

Will Buy-to-Let still make sense in 2020 when the new tax rules come into full effect?  I have done some number crunching based on 5% gross yield and 5% per annum capital growth. Here’s a summary:- Property value say £150,000 Rent of say £7,500 per annum (5% gross yield). Cost of management, maintenance, insurance etc. […]

The following Best Buy table was taken directly from our mortgage sourcing tool. The input fields used were:- Purchase price: £200,000 LTV: 80% Deal: 5 year fixed rate To search for other products or to enter different loan amounts, LTV’s etc click on the image below to link to our mortgage sourcing tool. Alternatively you can […]

Thank you to the 500 plus landlords and property lawyers who registered onto the webinar on 18th June.  We had more questions than there was time to answer. They broadly fall into two categories – the enforcement side and the serving notice/transfer up aspects. We will address the enforcement questions in this article and cover […]